The International Marxist Tendency rejects the current attempt by US imperialism to carry out a coup in Venezuela. What we are witnessing is a blatant attempt to remove the Venezuelan government of president Maduro by a coalition of countries, led by Trump. This is the latest episode in a 20-year campaign against the Bolivarian Revolution, a campaign that has involved military coups, paramilitary infiltrations, sanctions, diplomatic pressure, violent rioting and assassination attempts.

We have decided to change the program for the upcoming Marxist Winter School in Montreal to hold a special session on the situation in Venezuela. Below are details about the session and other important details for the weekend.

The United States has decided it is time for “regime change” in Venezuela, and is acting in a relentless manner to achieve it. The imperialists have appointed an “interim president” and rallied the “international community” to recognise him. They have seized Venezuelan assets in the US and the UK and imposed economic sanctions. They are calling on president Maduro to step down and on the Venezuelan Army to oust him if he refuses. This is an imperialist coup attempt, which any socialist and even consistent democrat is duty-bound to oppose.

Working hand-in-hand with the Trump administration, the Canadian government has been at the forefront of the attempt to artificially install Venezuela National Assembly president Juan Guaido as president. The Trudeau regime has the temerity of declaring Venezuela a dictatorship at the same time as it sells Saudi Arabia $15-billion in arms. Utilizing the mass media they are attempting to fool the population into supporting another right wing coup in Latin America. But increasingly people are seeing through the lies and hypocrisy.

As we have reported previously, a coup d'état is underway in Venezuela, promoted by imperialism and its lackeys of the Lima cartel; and executed by its puppets in the opposition. On 23 January, the coup entered into a higher phase of its execution when deputy Guaido took an oath as “president in charge of the republic”.

The Canadian government has announced that it will not be allowing Venezuelan expats the right to vote in the upcoming Presidential election in Venezuela. Almost immediately, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza attacked the decision and pleaded with the government to reconsider.

Even before the National Election Council had announced the results of Sunday’s Constituent Assembly elections in Venezuela, the opposition and western imperialism had already declared there had been massive fraud and that they would not recognise the legitimacy of the Assembly. Since then, they have piled up pressure on all fronts. What is to be done?

The Bolivarian Revolution is at one of its lowest points since President Chávez’s electoral victory in 1998. On top of the defeat in the December 2015 National Assembly elections, the aggravation of the economic situation is impacting the mass of the working people—who are the base and support of the revolution. It is time to draw a serious balance sheet.

The Canadian government has become the latest imperialist power to jump to the defence of the far-right protests in Venezuela. Parliament has just passed a unanimous motion that places the responsibility for the current violence in the country on the shoulders of the Venezuelan government rather than the opposition gangs that initiated the unrest. We have become accustomed to both the Conservatives and Liberals attacking the Venezuelan revolution, but what is concerning this time around is the fact that the NDP has sided with the two right-wing parties in condemning the Bolivarian government. As Canada’s labour party, we think that the NDP should be standing against the right-wing at home and in Venezuela, while championing the successes of the revolution as an inspiration for our own struggles against capitalist austerity.

It is often the destiny of revolutionary leaders that after death those that attacked and vilified them during their lifetime begin to praise them, while simultaneously distorting their ideas, watering them down, reducing them to impotence, just as one neuters a troublesome tomcat. On the first anniversary of his death, what will be the destiny of Hugo Chávez? Will his ideas be buried with him? Are those who are now delivering flattering speeches about Chávez really defending his ideas and putting them into practice? That is the question that every honest supporter of the Bolivarian Revolution is asking today.